


Fading

by south_adversary



Series: Into The Flood [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Drama, Falling In Love, Healing, Love, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 09:47:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3483683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/south_adversary/pseuds/south_adversary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zarek Trevelyan and Cole chat above the tavern. Zarek feels open and resigned. A strange combination.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fading

**Author's Note:**

> This scene takes place a couple of weeks after the last one. At this point, Zarek and Cole have traveled together some, and are a bit more familiar with each other’s company. They chat in the tavern sometimes. 
> 
> I'm sorry this is so short. I just wanted to add a little in-between of them talking and show some development that's happened. It's also just a little more explanation to the previous scene. 
> 
> I’m offering this song again because I listened to it while writing this scene as well. I swear in the future there will be other songs! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqoANESQ4cQ

The tavern crowd roared below.

“Blood. Blood that used to laugh and live. Alive, then… not. Blood means death now. Not life. It was life. Was… power. Then gone. Lost.” Cole stammered away as he attempted to sort through the inquisitor’s mind and memories.

_Bringing this up again…_

Zarek Trevelyan rested stiffly against the wall of the tavern overcroft, thankful this attention from Cole came when they were alone. He wondered again at Cole’s desire to be surrounded by people but separate from them.

“You loved a blood mage?” the soft voice asked.

“I did. Yes.”

“Is that why you helped the rebel mages?”

“Maybe. Partly. I’m also not a fan of Templars, as you can imagine, despite my family’s affiliation with them.”

“Right…” he seemed to think for a time, “And, you’re not religious. And you don’t hate magic, or spirits. Is it all because of him? Because of-”

“Yes. Mostly. Though I was never really religious, certainly not in any traditional sense.”

Cole stared at him, letting him see his eyes for once, clearly wanting him to continue.

For some reason it worked.

“I’m not exactly _normal_ for a Trevelyan in any way. I never have been. My father…”

He sighed and glanced at Cole again. Why did the look on that boy’s face make him feel so open?

“My father had an unromantic affair with an elvehn servant. She, my mother, died in childbirth and when I came out… relatively human, he made the decision to raise me as a son. His only son. I’ve no brothers. I suppose he assumed that if he raised me as a Trevelyan, and didn’t allude to the actual circumstances of my birth, my elvehn traits would be suppressed. He was, more or less, wrong. I knew something was different about me: I could _feel_ meaning when some of the servants spoke in elvish. When I was still a boy, I asked one of my caretakers, an old and stoic elvehn woman, if she could tell me why I felt different. She informed me with little hesitation that my real mother was very much an elf and very much dead. The woman I called ‘mother’ had always been unkind to me, so this came as no shock. The two of them, my parents, have no idea that I know this, and I truly don’t care to tell them. Before the conclave, I wasn’t living at their estate anymore. I only stayed in contact for convenience. I’m glad to be here, and far from them.”

“I see it." He sounded glad. "Your cheekbones are like an elf’s.”

“And the silver hair gives it away sometimes.”

“Yes…”  

The spirit trailed off and paused for a long while. Zarek watched him relax back into his normal position. The air was sharp this high in the tavern—he wondered if spirit boys could get cold. Hopefully he would move if he grew uncomfortable…

“You think I’m odd?” Cole’s voice abruptly broke the silence.

He must have caught that lingering in Zarek’s mind at some point.

“Mostly.”

“But not all?”

Zarek looked at Cole from the corner of his eye—standing as always now, elbows bent, fingers touching, head down and hiding his blue eyes under the brim of his hat. Though there was this slight smile, seen only so rarely…

The inquisitor chose not to answer.

Minutes passed.

“You think of the death sometimes,” he started up again, “but never the life. Only flashes. A smile. Blonde hair. A sweet scent. A garden. Trees. Wind. Then… gone. Nothing. Then blood. Why?”

_Back on this now._ “Well, I prefer not to think of any of it.”

“But the bad memories hurt… less. Smiles cause too much pain. Hard to breathe. Because… you miss him?”

“I suppose that’s why,” Zarek sighed sharply.

Cole readied another question, parting his lips, but Zarek caught the moment. “How about we change the subject?”

It came as more of a demand than a question.

“But I want to help…”

“It’s been a long time Cole. I’m alright with this. I already know it wasn’t my fault. Felix should have stayed near me. If he hadn’t been so rash, he might have lived. But if he hadn’t been so rash, I would not have loved him. It’s a pointless argument.”

His voice came harsher than usual at the end—harsher than he meant it to.

Cole stood, still as ever. Silent.

Another sigh from the inquisitor. “Why don’t we talk about something else? How are things going for you?”

Cole proceeded to describe the ways he’d helped around Skyhold since they last spoke, while Zarek relaxed further to the sound of his soft voice.

As the boy rambled on, and his confidence seemed to grow, Zarek wondered if Cole could sense that he was comforted.

… _Comforted?_

He banished the thought.


End file.
